Singapore

London-based Nithia Capital Resources Advisors LLP is seeking to acquire troubled Singapore commodity trader Agritrade International Pte Ltd (AIPL) and its shares in its Hong Kong-listed subsidiary, according to a source familiar with the matter, Reuters reported. AIPL, whose businesses span palm oil and coal, is undergoing a court-appointed restructuring after it collapsed earlier this year amid fraud allegations. It owes $1.55 billion, including $983 billion to at least 20 banks.

ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd is unlikely to continue its core oil trading businesses in the long term, its court-appointed supervisor KPMG Services said in a report that also raised concerns over transactions by the Singapore-based trader, Reuters reported. ZenRock was placed under interim judicial management in May after one of its creditors HSBC Holdings PLC alleged that it engaged in a series of “highly dishonest transactions”.

EY, the court-appointed supervisor for Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd (OTPL), has proposed two restructuring options to the shipping company’s owners and could meet with them as early as next week to discuss the plans, according to an EY report seen by Reuters, Reuters reported. The discussions are to ascertain whether the owners - Lim Oon Kuin, his son Evan Lim Chee Meng and daughter Lim Huey Ching, or the Lim family - are “willing to support any future restructuring of OTPL”, the report said. EY declined to comment.

Singapore’s Hin Leong Trading (Pte) Ltd has no future as an independent company after it “grossly overstated” the value of its assets by at least $3 billion, according to a preliminary report prepared by a court-appointed supervisor, Reuters reported. In the report filed this week in Singapore’s High Court and reviewed by Reuters, the interim judicial managers from PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services Pte. Ltd (PwC) said they had found a significant number of irregularities in the Singapore oil trader’s finances.

Singapore-based ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd, hit by tumbling oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic, owes more than $600 million to creditors, the company said in a court filing seen by Reuters on Monday. In the application for “moratorium relief”, a form of bankruptcy protection, filed last Wednesday, the company said it owed at least six banks a total of $166.1 million and had outstanding balances of about $449 million in total with at least 10 unsecured creditors, Reuters reported. ZenRock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Phoenix Commodities Pvt Ltd, a trader of agricultural products with offices in Dubai and Singapore, is being liquidated after amassing more than $400 million in potential trading losses, according a document prepared by the liquidators seen by Reuters.

HSBC Holdings Plc alleged Singapore oil trader ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd. was involved in a series of “highly dishonest transactions” that included the company using the same cargo of oil to obtain more than one loan from banks, according to court documents seen by Bloomberg, Bloomberg News reported. Europe’s biggest lender filed an application to Singapore’s High Court on May 4 to put ZenRock under so-called judicial management, a form of debt restructuring in which a third party runs the company.

HSBC Holdings Plc, already on the hook for $600 million in loans to fallen Singapore oil giant Hin Leong, has taken steps to oust the management at another energy firm, claiming it used the same cargo to secure financing from multiple banks, Bloomberg News reported. Europe’s biggest lender filed an application to Singapore’s High Court on May 4 to put ZenRock Commodities Trading Pte Ltd. under so-called judicial management, a form of debt restructuring in which a third party runs the company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Hontop Energy (Singapore) Pte Ltd, the trading arm of a Shandong-based refiner, is negotiating directly with banks on managing its debts after it withdrew its application for a debt moratorium, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, Reuters reported. Hontop submitted last month a request to the Singapore High Court to apply for a debt moratorium but the company subsequently withdrew it, they said. The company went into receivership in February after Singapore bank DBS, one of Hontop’s creditors, appointed accounting firm KPMG as the receiver.

Singapore has long touted itself as the ideal home for a commodity trading house, with low taxes, light regulation and a view of one of the world’s busiest shipping channels, Bloomberg News reported. That hard-earned reputation is now taking a hit after a spate of financial scandals and failures, culminating in the dramatic demise of Hin Leong Trading Pte, the fabled marine fuel trader that has confessed to hiding about $800 million in losses and selling off oil inventories that were backstopping loans.